The Hunted Man(An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge)
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| An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridges as a naturalist story |
"An
Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is a short story written by Ambrose
Bierce. The story is about flashbacks and, a man who is sentenced to be hanged.
Because the story was written in the Civil War period, it mostly considered as
realism about the effects of the war, and half of the story takes place in the
Fahrquhar's mind. So the story even classified as psychological realism.
But it is a short story about naturalism. Thus, our claim is that, although it
was written in the term of the Civil War and mostly considered as realism about
the war, the elements of naturalism outweigh these assumptions and the story is
about naturalism. To prove our statement we will touch on the passiveness of
the main character, a man called “the hunted man”, and the heightened language
used by the writer.
Characters are more important than plot and action in realistic works, but in contrast, in naturalistic works, characters whose lives are beyond of their control are governed by the forces of passion, instinct or environment. In this story, it is not the character we are seeing in the foreground but the action. The story is being told by a third person narrator and the man who is sentenced to death even can not narrate his own death. There are many sections showing that the narrator is passive. The first seven paragraphs talk about the narrator but without a name, without giving an identity to the main character. This indicates that the identity is not important in the story, but the important one is the action. The first sentence "A man stood upon a railroad bridge in Alabama..." foreshadows the passiveness of the main character who is simply a man. Until the last two sentences, we do not know if the Fahrquhar is alive or it is just an illusion. Additionally, as if the death of the main character is not that much important, the writer gives it only in two sentences. It is not important what happened to the main character because it is not about what the main character feels, it is about action and that is one of the main characteristics of naturalism.
Even the writer gives a name to the main character, still, he prefers to call him "the hunted man". For the humans who separate themselves from the other animals, we are hunters and the animals are for the hunting. In that case, for us, animals are the hunted ones but here writer prefers to use the word "hunted" to describe a human. We are the one who separates ourselves from all the other animals, but for nature, we are one of the other kind of animals. We are not more valuable than any animal for nature scientifically. It is not only about the comparison between human and animal, but also we see the comparison between human and plants "..the forest on the bank of the stream…, …trees, the leave, …veining of each leaf, …he saw the very insects… noted the prismatic colours in all the dewdrops …million blades of grass.” Later on, he continues to talk about the magnificence of nature "he dug his fingers into the sand, threw it over himself in handfuls and audibly blessed it. It looked like diamonds, rubies, emeralds; he could think of nothing beautiful which it did not resemble”. By resembling the sand to diamond, it is highlighted that according to humans, diamonds are more important than many other things; but for the animals who live on the sand, the sand as important as a diamond scientifically.
To sum up; although the story written in the term of the civil war and considered as a realism of the war, there are assumptions like the passiveness of the writer, symbolic sentences like the "hunted man" and the heightened language which is used by writer indicates that the story mostly deals with the naturalism. Some of the characteristics of the naturalism is that; humans are animals like the other animals, there are no differences for them. So in that case, their lives are beyond their control and governed by the forces of passion, instinct or environment. And the writers of the naturalism mostly used heightened language.
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| An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge & realism and naturalism |
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| An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge |
